Arendelle Elementary
by snitchhazel570
Summary: Elsa had originally planned to start a new, better life with her son Olaf. She just wasn't expecting to find his elementary teacher so attractive. Elsanna AU, not icest.
1. Chapter 1

**Arendelle Elemetary**

Title: Arendelle Elementary

Chapter: 1/?

Rating: T

Warnings: Elsanna (not incest) fem!Slash

Disclaimer: Frozen and all affiliated brands and characters are not my property. The following characters are not based off of anyone I know. The views of the characters are not necessarily my views. Locations mentioned are used purely for geographical reasons and are not an accurate reflection of the real places.

A/N: Hello everyone, I decided to tackle an elsanna headcanon I saw on the tumblr page a while ago. I couldn't find the link to it, but it was about Elsa being a single mom and Anna an elementary school teacher. I thought it was super adorable. Expect fluff. (and if you know what I'm talking about, please send me the link. Please).

This should be the first of many chapters. Enjoy.

* * *

The trunk of the car shut close with a loud thud—louder than she had been expecting. She shut her eyes and winced at the sound before quickly looking up at her name being called.

"Mommy, are you ok?" She could barely see the top Olaf's head as he strained to look at her over the back seat of the car. His brow furrowed with worry in a way that resembled her expression a bit too much.

She walked around the car and got in the back seat so she could finish buckling him in, her smile never leaving her face. "Yes, snowflake. I just put a little too much muscle into it"

"It's because you're super strong, mommy! You're the strongest mommy in the entire world!" He threw his arms to his sides, just barely missing her face, and stretched them as much as he could. "You're this strong, mommy. You see? Mommy, mommy—look at me. You're this strong, see?"

She giggled lightly at his actions and hummed her affirmation as she leaned in to place a kiss on his head. She tried to comb away the blond mess of hair with her fingers even though she knew that as soon as she turned around it would go back to its unruly state. She got up from her seat and exited the car to give her son a last look before sitting in the front.

She couldn't help but smile as she took in the whole scene: her son, now almost six years old, sat in the back of the car looking up expectantly at her while hugging his favorite toy—a snowman—to his chest. She couldn't believe that at one point she had thought of her beautiful boy as an accident, as a curse. It was ironic, really. She had thought that being pregnant at such a young age would ruin her life, destroy her future, when in reality he had saved her.

It had been hard, yes. Being pregnant at 18 was no piece of cake, especially when her parents were under constantly under the public eye. She was, after all, Elsa Snowden, daughter of Senator Snowden of Maine. He had always made sure that his image was intact, and that meant that his family had to be completely perfect. Her dad had entered the political career early on in his life and become Senator immediately after her grandfather had left his place.

From an early age she had attended the best catholic schools in the state and received private lessons in every field her father thought would look good, ranging from piano to French and Spanish. Her mama, on the other hand, was the picture of the perfect wife. Always standing next to him, or a step behind if attention was given solely to him. She had been the daughter of another wealthy family and so she too had been raised with the same standards. She was so reserved but so polite. The people of Maine had grown to love her and respect her. There was no other woman in Maine like her—even the wife of the Governor thought so.

Her father, however, had been the true center of attention. She had always admired him; he was truly flawless. She had no idea how a man could be so impeccable—the way he greeted the people at the republican rallies, how genuinely he smiled, laughed, and shook hands with everyone around him. The passion in his speeches would earn him cheers and applause long before he was done, even if he was quick to silence them with just a small wave of his hand. To Elsa he was the very definition of a leader—"the future president" her mama would say to her as she tucked her in at night after her nana had retired to her chambers.

She had come to accept his political beliefs as reality. No to welfare—if people truly worked hard then they could easily support themselves and their families. Gun control? If guns were outlawed then how were people supposed to protect themselves? Contraception for women—what? Should people's tax money honestly be spent giving women the chance to have sex with as many men as they could? Gay marriage… well that one had hit closer to home.

She had been a freshman in high school when she began to have her first suspicions that she was, well, lesbian. She had been transferred to a new catholic college preparatory after rumors surfaced that her female physical education teacher was married to a woman. That was the first time she had heard of the idea of women being with other women. Apparently her parents had done a good job at shielding her from anything that was not deemed "appropriate" by them. When she had tried to inquire further on the subject during a family dinner her father had promptly stopped her and sent her up to her room, later that night her mother had kindly told her to not ask about it anymore.

Up to that point she hadn't expressed any real interest in boys. She wasn't the most attractive girl in the school, but a couple had shown interest when asking her to the dance or a movie after school. Her father had been particularly fond of one boy who had been rather persistent.

Hans Southers had been her classmate since she had been in kindergarten. His father, Congressman Southers, and her dad had been close allies since before her father had even considered becoming a senator. She knew their family well: growing up they had shared some Thanksgiving dinners and her family had even joined the Southers during election nights to see the results on TV.

She didn't like Hans, but her dad had adored him from the very beginning. He was the youngest of 13 brothers (apparently sluts were not the only ones who needed contraception) yet not even the lack of attention from his parents and older siblings had prevented him from turning into a jerk. To say the least, he was the guy that was used to getting what he wanted—his father had bought him his position of soccer captain and school president. Up until high school, when he transferred schools along with Elsa, she had been the only thing (or in this case person) that Hans had yet to get his hands on.

No, Elsa had been more entertained on the idea of being with Belle. Elsa had never been a very talkative child. She preferred to keep to herself, sit at the back of the classroom, and only speak when spoken to. Her dad always encouraged her to socialize, make friends, but her fear of saying something she shouldn't, to ruin her father's image, had turned her into a bit of an ice queen. All of that went out the window the moment she saw Belle.

She was a year older than Elsa, and, like her name suggested, she was beautiful.

Elsa had first seen her in the library one day during lunch and they quickly became friends after Belle started up a conversation with Elsa about classic literature. Soon enough they became inseparable. They shared their first kiss in the back of that same library where they first met and continued secretly seeing each other until that fateful day at the end of Elsa's junior year when Hans had run to Elsa's dad and told him everything. She ended her relationship with Belle that same day under the pretense that Belle was now going off to college and the idea of a long distance relationship didn't sit well with her. She never found out how Hans had discovered her secret. Elsa's dad didn't speak to her for the rest of the summer.

That was exactly how Elsa found herself agreeing to finally date Hans. She had gone into her father's study two weeks into her senior year of high school—tired of being ignored all summer—and broken the news to him that she had cured herself of those sinful thoughts. Never breaking eye contact with her shoes, she had told him that she had found the error in her ways and had instead discovered that she liked boys—that she liked _Hans_. Her father stood up from his chair, approached her, and gave her a semi-encouraging pat on the back. The contact had been enough of an incentive to continue her relationship with Hans for as long as she did.

Ironically, Hans had been the one to end it. Getting in bed with him had been, of course, his idea. She had only rejected his advances the first couple of times, finally conceding around the third or fourth only to reassure herself that she did, in fact, like him. Getting pregnant, on the other hand, had never been part of the plan and Hans—oh Hans had a bright future ahead of him. _How inconsiderate of you to put him in this situation_,_ Elsa_. Marriage was out of the question from the beginning and abortion had been but a faint whisper in the back of Elsa's mind. She brought up the idea of carrying the baby to full term and giving it up for adoption but Mr. Southers quickly shut it down. "No child carrying my blood will end up in an orphanage" he said.

The solution had been simple: remove Elsa from the public eye, make up a story of how she was sent to finish her education in England, hire the best tutors in the area and their secrecy, and keep her and her bastard child at home where no one could ever see her or the shame she had brought to the family.

The Southers offered to pay for the expenses of the baby but Elsa's dad rejected the offer accepting full blame and responsibility for the mistake made. She hadn't seen Hans after that, and her parents had decided it was better for them to move closer to the state capital—for political reasons, of course.

Those were the circumstances in which Olaf was born.

Elsa would be lying if she said she had loved him from the beginning. She had been small and fragile and Elsa had been completely terrified with the idea that he was her sole responsibility. How was she supposed to take care of a baby when she didn't even know who she was—she had found herself in this situation _because_ she didn't know who she was, goddamnit.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the baby had actually _liked_ her. He had given her a smile—not one out of commitment, or politeness, or even pity, but a real, genuine, happy smile. She had no idea what to do with that. She just knew she liked it. She liked it a lot.

Before she knew it, she was making weird faces, and jumping, and dancing, and singing, andrunning—_actually running—_just so she could see Olaf smile.

Olaf laughed, partly covering his smile with his snowman. "What are you smiling about, mommy?"

"Oh, nothing" she said, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek one last time before closing the back door of her car and sitting behind the wheel. "I'm just excited for our trip to our new house."

"Me too! I'm really excited for the longer summers. I like snow a lot, but I like summer even more! And I can't believe I actually get to go to a real school with other kids! Can you believe it, mommy? I'm going to have so many friends. I can't wait to see what it looks like, Arradale Elementary—"

"Arendelle Elementary"

"Arradale Elementary! I'm so excited!"

"Me too, Olaf. Me too."

* * *

A/N: So as you probably noticed, there was absolutely no Anna there. This chapter is just basically an introduction to everything that's going on with Elsa. The story will be from her point of view completely.

Let me know what you think: review, PM me, or follow me on tumblr (I'm under the same name, link is on my profile page if you don't find it)!


	2. Chapter 2

**Arendelle Elementary**

Title: Arendelle Elementary

Chapter: 2/?

Rating: T

Warnings: Elsanna (not incest) fem!Slash

Disclaimer: Frozen and all affiliated brands and characters are not my property. The following characters are not based off of anyone I know. The views of the characters are not necessarily my views. Locations mentioned are used purely for geographical reasons and are not an accurate reflection of the real places.

* * *

"Mommy, mommy look!" Olaf shouted as he pulled at Elsa's hand and pointed at yet another picture on the wall. He looked at her, his face was absolutely beaming with joy.

Elsa returned his smile and nodded slightly, her frown quickly reappearing as soon as she looked up.

There was something unnerving about the hallway; the lighting was poor and the floor was sticky. She had also almost slipped when she stepped on a stray coloring pencil.

Or perhaps it was the fact that she had not been in a school for as long as Olaf had been with her, much less an elementary school. The memories of playtimes spent on her own and partner-less fieldtrips where she was forced to hold hands with the teacher instead of a classmate came crashing down all at once. She swallowed hard before taking another step.

She had reconsidered delaying Olaf's first day of "real" school for at least another week—or year. In fact, she had spent the entire previous night internally debating if public school was even a good idea to begin with. She had not been able to fall asleep until the early hours of the morning, about an hour before Olaf had barged into her bedroom, backpack in hand, and jumped atop of her asking her to please wake up already. "The sky's awake so I'm awake!" he had said while trying to pry her eye open with his tiny fingers.

Except Elsa wasn't awake, or ready, for that matter. She just had never liked elementary school.

And now here she was, lost inside of one.

Now, Elsa considered herself to be a fairly smart person. After all, she had been the one to orchestrate her and Olaf's move to another state. Without the help, or knowledge, of her father—thank god for that—she had managed to find a job that would best allow her to apply her knowledge in business administration, a nicely-priced home where she and Olaf could live comfortably, and a school a few blocks away from that home for Olaf. Shortly after filling out all of the registration forms she had even realized that said school also offered an afterschool care program, which had been quite a bonus.

Under strict orders from her father, she had spent the last five years of her life learning, and then teaching herself, everything she could about the way the economy worked and its effects on individual corporations and vice versa. If given a couple of hours she could memorize and work with the infrastructure of any business.

On top of that she had grown increasingly interested in computer science and software programming. She had even secretly studied and received a degree in the field.

Forget that, she had kept her son alive and breathing for those five years. She had taught him how to walk and talk and read. She had taught him how to use a toilet, for god's sake!

So, when the lady at the front desk told her the simple instructions to Ms. Summerfield's classroom she had honestly thought herself to be an intelligent, grown woman capable of finding her way.

By now, she vaguely remembered the directions Bulda—was that her name?—had given her.

"It's really easy hon," she had said. "Make two rights, one left and go into the classroom to the right of a purple snowflakes poster. You should be there in no time."

That had been _at least_ 40 minutes ago. She repeated the directions in her head another time—two rights, one left, purple snowflakes. Or was it two lefts, one right?

She rounded another corner and closed her eyes shut willing the damned, purple snowflake poster to appear.

It didn't.

Were the walls closing in or was that just her? She took a look at Olaf. He was practically jumping out of his shoes. It was just her.

She inwardly thanked her boy for not being the kind of kid to run off when his short amount of patience vanished, and for not being the type of kid to make comments about clammy hands. She was surprised she could still grab on to his little hand, as sweaty as her grip was.

Chewing her lip she looked around yet again, the walls were covered with poorly drawn pictures of trees and signs that wished onlookers a good day. She adjusted the collar of her dress shirt noting how the back of her neck was also coated with a layer of sweat. She would have to stop by the restroom before going to work—if she managed to find her way out of there, that is.

For the hundredth time that day she considered going back to Maine. _You could probably pull it off. You haven't even unpacked! Just turn around, bribe Olaf with an ice cream cone and a visit to the beach, drive to the house and—_

"Yoo Hoo! Hello dear, are you lost?"

She was shocked that she had not noticed the enormous man before her approach. He was so incredibly tall that she found herself almost having to look directly up to make eye contact. Her eyes traced along his blonde sideburns before finally settling on his blue eyes.

He tapped the pads of his fingers against each other and looked at her expectantly.

"Oh! Um. Yes, we – um—"

"My mommy and I can't find my classroom."

_Thanks Olaf._

"Right, we are looking for Ms. Summerfield's classroom. We have been unable to find it so far, would you mind taking us there?"

"Oh, yah! It's just around the corner, you see? Follow me please." He motioned them around the corner from which Elsa had come. "It's that one over there," he smiled as he pointed. "Next to the blue snowflakes poster, see?"

Blue. Blue snowflakes. She had spent the greater part of the last hour looking for _purple _snowflakes.

"I'm sorry, dear," the man said as he walked Elsa and Olaf to the door. "But I didn't catch your name, yah? I'm Mr. Oaken, the school social vorker"

"Oh, yes. My mistake. I'm Elsa and this is my son—"

"I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!" Olaf chimed in from Elsa's side, excited already to be making a new friend.

"I haven't met anyone who doesn't like varm hugs," the man smiled down at Olaf before opening the door. "Yoo hoo! Ms. Summerfield, I have new student for you!"

Elsa and Olaf had been standing on their toes trying to look around Mr. Oaken's large body and into the classroom when he turned around smiling to urge them inside. They quickly stood up straight and resumed their previous positions and smiled back, Olaf much more openly than Elsa. "It's in here, yah? If you need anything I'll be in my office."

Elsa's eyes followed Mr. Oaken's retreating form until he rounded the corner, thinking it a bit odd that a man of his size could walk with a jump in his step. Odd and endearing.

She turned her gaze to the now fully opened classroom expecting to see total chaos and an older, bitter-looking woman shouting at the kids to sit down—or some other horrible scenario that would allow her to lift Olaf onto her hip and run out of there as soon as possible.

She was definitely not expecting to see a kind-looking, red-haired young woman crouching down next to a table of kids who looked to be Olaf's age. She was also not expecting her to be—did she dare say it?—attractive.

Maybe running out of the building was not such a bad idea.

Elsa watched as Ms. Summerfield stoop up from her current position, only now noticing the way the tables in the classroom were covered with insane amounts of glitter and feathers and other colorful papers of all kinds, before approaching them. She was already smiling and waving at them a bit too enthusiastically.

"Hi!" She said, crouching down to meet Olaf's eyes. "You must be Olaf!"

Olaf was blown away by the fact that his future teacher already knew this bit of information about him. He turned to look Elsa and she didn't think she had ever seen him this excited—in the last hour, at least. "Mommy, she knows my name" he said in a loud whisper. She couldn't help but smile, he was adorable.

Ms. Summerfield giggled, apparently sharing Elsa's thoughts, before rising to her feet and introducing Olaf to the rest of the classroom. "Everybody!" she announced, raising her hand while making a peace sign with her fingers. All of the kids in the room quickly followed. "This is Olaf, he will be joining you guys for the rest of the year."

Elsa stood back as Olaf was directed to his seat, having had to urge him on only once after he looked back at her with a bit of uncertainty in his eyes. Now that she didn't have his hand to hold she just held her right hand in her right, attempting to not look as nervous as she felt.

She noticed the ease with which Ms. Summerfield moved around her classroom and how she had quickly relieved Olaf's hesitation by gently rubbing circles in his back. She was shocked, to say the least, not because of the teacher's overly enthusiastic demeanor but because of her age. Coming into the room Elsa had noticed how young Ms. Summerfield looked, even younger than herself. While Elsa knew that being young did not mean that a person had to be bad with little kids—after all, she had been taking care of a baby at 19—she was still surprised at the complete control Ms. Summerfield had over the classroom filled with little people. From afar she could tell how much the kids liked her; how her silly faces and mannerisms elicited laughs from everyone around her, Olaf included; how their eyes grew with excitement and their bodies leaned in as they paid attention to every word she said—a hard task to accomplish given their age group.

Ms. Summerfield locked eyes with Elsa and smiled. Looking at Olaf once again she slid a piece of paper and some materials towards him. Getting up on her feet, she looked down at him once again and playfully ruffled his hair.

Elsa frowned, his hair had actually been manageable that day.

Before she even realized, Ms. Summerfield was a foot away from her. Elsa instinctively took a short step back, wanting to keep at least a little bit of her personal space. Ms. Summerfield's smile didn't falter. She watched as the friendly young woman before her fidgeted a little bit in her spot and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear before, at last, she opened her mouth.

"You must be Ms. Snowden, I'm Ms. Summerfield," she began. "but you can call me Anna—I mean, you don't have to call me Anna, you can just call me Ms. Summerfield if you want!—ahem. Just, whatever you feel most comfortable with, I guess" She extended her hand with the intention of shaking Elsa's when she realized it was covered in the feathers and glitter that had stuck to it when helping her students. She quickly wiped it off on her behind.

"Sorry about that" she said, a light blush spreading across freckled cheeks. "We had a last minute change of plans, I wanted to play a movie for the day—I knew Olaf was coming in today and I didn't want him to miss anything."

"I'm sure you didn't" Elsa smiled. Was that what she was doing with her mouth? That's what she had wanted to do, yet Ms. Summer—Anna didn't look too convinced. "Look" she quickly said, pointing behind the teacher at Olaf, trying to salvage the situation. "He looks like he's having fun already."

It was true, Olaf's shirt was partly covered in feathers and the front of his hair was sparkling with what Elsa could only assume was more glitter. When he noticed his mom was looking, he quickly lifted his paper above his head and eagerly pointed at the wild combination of colors on it while saying "Mommy, look at what I made."

Elsa waved and happy nodded at her boy, her eyebrows raised in amusement.

Anna turned back to look at her. "I am really sorry, though." She said and then quickly threw her hands in the air. "I mean—gah. I've been here for over a year now, and I can't get these stinky computer's to work—"

"My mommy knows a lot about computers" Olaf interrupted, not missing a beat.

Apparently he had been closer to them than what Elsa had originally thought.

"You do?" Anna said, her eyes once again wide with excitement. "Do you think you could possibly look at it and see if you get the movie going—I mean, I tried before but I'm just not good with technology and all. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the guy in charge of that hates me already."

"Well… um. I'm not really—" Elsa tried to decline, wanting to explain that yes, she was good at computers, but no, she was not the type of person who fixed them. Instead she frowned and took another step back. Stupid impulses.

"Oh, of course. I mean, I'm not forcing you to fix it—you really don't have to," she tucked her hair behind her ear, even though it had not moved from where she had last placed it. "We can have craft day, it's fine."

"I'll take a look at it," she said, surprising herself in the process. She cleared her throat and stood up straight, if she was going to attempt to have a life outside of her room she needed to start looking the part. Besides, how hard could it be to fix an elementary school computer? In any case, it was probably an extremely generic problem—at least she hoped it was. "Where's the-"

She found herself unable to finish her sentence as she was pulled further into the room by the redhead. Anna squealed in delight as she thanked her and quickly introduced her to the class on their way to the computer. Elsa felt herself grow nervous as she realized she was under the intense scrutiny of fifty tiny eyes. This _was_ like elementary school all over again.

_Get it together, Elsa. They are five years old._

"So can you?" Elsa quickly returned her gaze to Anna, only now realizing that Anna had been talking to her the whole time. Elsa now noticed the way Anna's posture had changed, she was bent over the desktop computer, her head turned as far back as possible in order to look at Elsa. She nodded quickly and watched as Anna smiled and turned her attention back to the screen.

Elsa stifled a giggle as she observed how a feather had nicely stuck to Anna's behind, surely from when the younger woman had wiped her hands earlier, and promptly flushed when she realized she was staring at the teacher's posterior. She rapidly turned her head to glance at Olaf. He was intently focused on trying to unglue a feather from his hand. Good, he hadn't noticed.

With a slight nod she approached the computer and sat down in the chair as Anna moved aside to allow her enough room to move. Though the space behind the desk was small as it was, she felt it reduced all the more as Anna leaned over her shoulder. Elsa gulped audibly at the sudden intrusion of her defined bubble. The teacher _really_ did not understand the concept of personal space.

"So, what's the problem again?" Elsa said as her head moved a fraction of a degree to the right, even then she felt her cheek graze a loose strand of hair from Anna's head.

"I don't know" Anna sighed, her breath providing Elsa's senses with a pleasantly familiar aroma. "Whenever I put the DVD in, it just shows a little disc with an hour glass—there! That one! But if you go to 'My Computer'—click it—it just tells you to insert the disk, see?"

Elsa hummed in agreement, she reinserted the disk to see if it worked that time. It didn't. She recalled learning about the interconnections between computer software and hardware, but that had been too long ago. Maybe if she—

Elsa smiled as the realization hit her. She couldn't remember learning about this particular problem in a class, but she did remember experiencing it herself. She recalled how she had struggled with a DVD of Little Einsteins for two hours straight as a year-old Olaf poked her and pulled at her skirt before losing interest and moving on to better things. She had eventually figured the solution—on her own, she might add—fixed it, and turned around in her chair just to find her baby sleeping next to his snowman.

At the time she had felt an immense guilt wash over her for being a terrible mother who neglected her only child, but she had made it up to him. They had watched Little Einsteins together for the rest of the day.

Elsa expertly opened the dialog box of the computer and typed in the command. She glanced at Anna and began explaining her work as she opened the Systems Properties dialog box, followed by the Device Manager tab, and proceeded to find the CD-ROM driver in order to reinstall it.

Once she had completed updating the driver, she closed down all of the windows she had opened, returned to the desktop and retried inserting the DVD. It worked.

She sat back the chair and turned to look at Anna, who by now had a combined expression of deep confusion and amazed wonder.

"Whoa," she finally said, locking eyes with Elsa. "I have no idea how you did that—or what you did, really—but that was quite something, Ms. Snowden"

"Elsa," she corrected, standing up once again. "You can just call me Elsa."

"Perfect! Then you can just call me Anna."

A nice silence settled between the two and for the first time that day, Elsa felt herself relax. She watched as Anna looked down, back at her and opened her mouth, clearly wanting to say something. She felt herself smile in anticipation as Anna—

Her phone rang startling the two, and a few kids in the classroom apparently. She dug through the bag she had forgotten about and fished out her phone. She frowned.

"Oh, is that from work" Anna inquired from where she was standing. "Yeah, I've probably held you for too long, right? You should get going—I'm not kicking out! Haha, no! You can stay here if you want to. I mean, we'll just be watching a movie now, thanks to you, of course"

By then Elsa was too distracted to pay much attention. Almost mechanically, she walked to the door, only stopping to give Olaf a peck in the cheek and remind him that she would be there as soon as school finished. She stopped in the doorway long enough to just be able to nod as Anna thanked her yet again for her help. She closed the door behind her and looked at her phone again.

That had been the fifth missed call from her father that day.

* * *

A/N: I did it! I finally finished the chapter, you guys! Believe it or not, half of this was finished about a month ago. I was so set on posting this for you guys to show my appreciation for all of the wonderful reviews you wrote and the overwhelming amount of follows and favorites I received, and then I realized "Oh goodness, people are actually reading this!" which then turned into "Oh my goodness, some of my favorite authors are reading this!" which pushed me into some self-doubt and writer's block and just pure, inexcusable procrastination.

I'm really sorry. I truly am. I do hope you continue reading, however, and that you enjoyed the new installment to the story. I actually planned out most of the story by now, so chapters should be coming to you at a weekly basis, hopefully.

Oh, and shout out to **DanTheJogger93 **for jogging, of course, because I cannot find the motivation to do that.

And also for sending me the link for the headcanon for this story. I will shortly post it on my profile page, or somewhere. I haven't quite decided where.

Until next time, stay classy!

-Snitchhazel


	3. Chapter 3

**Arendelle Elementary**

Title: Arendelle Elementary

Chapter: 3/?

Rating: T

Warnings: Elsanna (not incest) fem!Slash

Disclaimer: Frozen and all affiliated brands and characters are not my property. The following characters are not based off of anyone I know. The views of the characters are not necessarily my views. Locations mentioned are used purely for geographical reasons and are not an accurate reflection of the real places.

* * *

Elsa shifted uncomfortably in her seat and looked at the clock hanging on the wall above the receptionist's desk.

She was early to the meeting—too early.

She smoothed out her skirt, attempting to dry the dampness of her palms, and suppressed the urge to wring her hands.

Originally she had meant to take Olaf to school, a task that she had predicted would take her no more than 15 minutes, go back home and begin placing her belongings on their assigned locations until about an hour before her meeting, at which point she would get into her car and travel the 30 minute drive to her new office.

She had planned for everything, or at least tried to, even allowing herself an extra 30 minutes in case she met trouble navigating the streets on her way to work. Not surprisingly, she had failed to anticipate that the only place she would have trouble navigating would be her son's school, and that once the desired destination was found, she would spend an extra half hour in a classroom full of intimidating children.

Not to say she regretted the time she had spent there with Olaf's teacher—

She shut her eyes closed and mentally forced herself to move past that memory and the inappropriateness it implied.

She had been forced to drive straight to the office after finding her way out of the school, the lack of time would no longer allow her to make a stop at home and begin unpacking before making her trip.

Or maybe she would have had time, had she not sat in her car for the better part of the next hour debating whether to call her father (yet another unexpected complication—she was off her game today). She had finally decided that no, she was not ready to tell him that she had gotten a job, placed her and his grandson's belongings into boxes, sealed them, and then driven 1000 miles across the country to her new home.

Yet based on the fact that she had received more calls from him in the past three hours than she had in the year preceding her move, she guessed that he probably already knew, and that he wasn't too happy about it.

Living in her parent's house had meant neither her nor Olaf could spend very much time outside. Though her parents had taken multiple measures to ensure that she and her son would remain hidden, they had not given much thought to the prospect of relocating them. As a result, they were forced to spend the majority of the day indoors, only going out to their backyard to ensure Olaf received at least a tiny percentage of light directly from the sun—and that he knew what grass felt like.

Elsa guessed that it was as a result of that concealment that Olaf had learned to love summer. He cherished the few minutes he had every day to go outside and play, his green eyes widening with excitement as he ran outside and shutting close shortly after as he squinted once the sunlight hit them.

When winter arrived, along with the snowstorms that would render them incapable of going outside, Olaf would instead chose to stay indoors coloring scenes of himself and Elsa in the beach, sailing a boat or having a picnic.

Elsa had kept every single one of them.

She wanted to be mad at her parents, and yet she could not deny how she had grown comfortable with her life inside of the house. After all, it meant receiving weekly checks enclosed in letters written by her mom and yet signed by both of her parents. It meant being able to spend all of her time with Olaf, and the remainder of it studying anything and everything that sparked her interest. She had received an education and prepared for a future she was not sure would ever come.

Until it did.

She looked around the room she was currently sitting in once again, noticing how the walls had been decorated in order to reflect the New Orleans' theme the restaurant owners had been so proud to adopt.

It was clear to Elsa that the restaurant had been built and raised by a caring, supportive family. The multiple pictures on the wall showed the transition from a humble eatery in the streets of Louisiana to the now fully established business that operated at three different locations, all famously known for their acclaimed gumbo and mouth-watering beignets.

However Elsa found herself especially drawn to a picture of the family of three, sitting out on the front porch of a house, laughing and enjoying their day together. It reminded her of her family, or at least what she had wanted her family to be like.

She looked back at the clock. Only five minutes had passed.

Elsa let her gaze drift down to the receptionist's desk, and jumped back startled when she made eye contact with the blonde leaning over the counter.

"Ms. Snowden, are you completely sure you don't want anythin' to drink?" the secretary offered, her thick southern accent lacing every word. "I don't want you dyin' of thirst or anythin' of the like—not if you'll be working here soon enough!" She giggled to herself and leaned over the counter even further, making the distance between them seem like inches when in reality it was at least six feet. Elsa was certain of it, she had measured.

Elsa smiled and politely declined the offer, wanting to keep as much distance as possible between the two.

"Oh well, then. But you let me know if you need anythin' all right?" Ms. La Bouff smiled back and returned to her seat contentedly as soon as Elsa nodded her head.

Elsa released a breath.

She wasn't entirely sure as to why she was so nervous about the meeting. For the most part it was just a formality, she had already been given the job and some instructions of what her position entitled. The general tasks of her new occupation were not extremely demanding and she had a good idea how to go about them, though she had been originally perplexed as to how she had managed to get a job that required at least a good amount of experience in the restaurant business.

Or at least she thought being Director of Operations required just a bit of more experience in the field than the one she currently had—or didn't have.

"Elsa! Is that you?" Elsa immediately stood up from her seat, glad to be pulled away from her current thoughts and attempted to find the source of the familiar voice. She smiled, gladly, when she realized just who it was that was speaking.

"Tiana, hi, how are you?" Elsa chuckled, a tiny bit amused at how the woman had run across the room in seconds just to envelop her in a hug.

Elsa remembered then just how much she had liked Tiana. She had been the closest thing Elsa had had to a friend in high school. Their friendship had developed from the mutual respect they had for each other: both of them were hardworking students who were more than eager to learn, regardless of the subject matter. Because of their placement in the advanced programs, they had shared multiple classes and, in many occasions, been paired to work on projects together.

Tiana had been aware of the truth, yet once Belle had left and only Hans had remained, she had been there to support her.

"How am I? I'm great now that I get to see you!" Tiana stood back, rubbing her hands along Elsa's arms. "How are you? More importantly, how was England?"

Elsa cringed inwardly. She hadn't expected to be asked that question so soon into the encounter. She cleared her throat.

"It was—um, informative?" She couldn't help the questioning tone that escaped her lips. She had tried to prepare for questions of that kind by becoming acquainted with all things England. She had now watched her fair share of British documentaries and television shows, in the process becoming obsessed with a certain Maggie Smith. Even Olaf had begun imitating her accent.

"Informative?" Tiana chuckled, raising her eyebrow. Ms. La Bouff giggled from her seat. "Girl, you up and leave half way through our senior year of high school, leaving me behind with that enormous government project—no, don't you start, I haven't forgotten—to go to the UK to study at Oxford, and yet you come here and telling me it was informative?"

"Oxford University!" Ms. La Bouff chimed in from the side "Did you meet any cute boys while you were there? Oh, please tell me you did and that you brought a few back home with you!"

"Now, don't you start Lottie" came a low voice from behind Tiana, though it was stern Elsa could tell the man was smiling.

"Oh daddy, you know we were only kidding" Tiana said looping her arm around her father's. The look of affection Mr. Howard gave his daughter did not go unnoticed by Elsa. For a fleeting instant, Elsa felt a pang of jealousy surface, but she suppressed it just as quickly.

"I wasn't" said Ms. La Bouff quietly from her seat.

Tiana's father laughed heartily from where he was standing and began to walk towards Elsa, his long strides guiding him quickly across the room. "Come on' girls, you don't want to scare away Elsa even before she begins!" he said putting his arm around her. "Now, if you would both excuse me, I have a very important meeting with this young lady."

Elsa felt herself being led away as Mr. Howard held her tightly with his arm. The man was strong, Elsa noted, and yet the hug felt warm and protective at the same time. She looked up to meet his smile with her own.

"Just make sure you get more out of her than I did, daddy" Tiana shouted from the waiting room, and then to Elsa "and don't you think I'm done with you just yet!"

Elsa looked back just in time to see Tiana and Ms. La Bouff sharing another smile before the door to Mr. Howard's office closed.

The office was big, Elsa noticed. The layout reminded her of her father's study, with a small sitting area to one side, in case any last-minute meetings were needed, and a small bar on the other end, for both special guests and long nights. The desk itself sat at the very back of the room, facing the doorway with one big chair on the back, and two smaller, nicely carved, wooden chairs on the other side. Elsa was motioned to sit down.

"You haven't told her" Mr. Howard said, his voice taking a much more somber tone now that they were alone, and yet the hand on her back told her that he meant to show no disappointment. He smiled down at her and moved behind his desk to sit down.

"No, not yet Mr. Howa-"

"Please call me James, we're family here Elsa"

She smiled, grateful for his warm welcome. She remembered the first time she had met James. Her father had made a point to invite him to his house after he and his family had moved to the neighborhood. The Howards had arrived to dinner with a pot of gumbo ready to be eaten and smiles on their faces that offered friendship, and not just the strictly-business relationships Elsa's father had shared with most of his acquaintances.

Elsa learned that night that James had served in the war. "A Vietnam vet" he had announced, not wanting to reveal too much of the past other than the part where he had left behind his girlfriend—at which point in the story his wife had smiled—and the dream to have his own restaurant.

He had returned from the war as a decorated veteran to find that while the people in Louisiana liked gumbo, so did the other restaurant owners in the state. He had been pushed out by competition and the overabundance of restaurants that featured the same menu. He had moved hoping to find another opportunity.

To Elsa's surprise, her dad was enchanted with the idea of helping a war veteran set up his own business. Elsa would later suspect that he had done so with the intentions of gaining support from the African American community as well as the free advertisement he knew the restaurant would provide. At the time, however, she only smiled as her father led James to his study leaving Elsa and Tiana alone at the dining room table.

"I haven't had much chance tell Tiana the truth yet, James" Elsa said, hesitating a little before saying his name. It seemed somewhat disrespectful to treat a man that had once been so close to her father in a first-name basis.

"I'm sure you will, once the time is right. Keeping secrets is not a good practice, Elsa. Especially when it means keeping them from the people who love you. Like I told you, we're all family here and we won't judge you for your decisions."

Elsa nodded along to his words and yet failed to believe him completely, even if she wanted to.

He leaned forward, his smile quickly forming into a grin "Now, let's talk some gumbo!"

* * *

Elsa walked expertly down the hallway, the echo of her heels being the only sound that resonated in the empty corridors of the school.

After the short meeting in James' office, he and Tiana had made her go through a set of dishes to "get acquainted" with the food served at the restaurant. It had made sense to her, she would shortly be overseeing the transactions that occurred between the individual managers and those between headquarters and the separate restaurants—getting to know the products provided was a given. She had eagerly sat awaiting the plate of gumbo, which had proven to be just as delicious as she remembered. Then the second dish had come, followed by a third, and a fourth, and a dessert because _you can't possibly sit down to eat our food without trying some of the beignets, Elsa_.

Albeit smaller than the usual portions served at the restaurants, the dishes had still proven to be quite plentiful. As a result, Elsa was now plenty full.

She chuckled at her own failure of a joke and held her stomach, afraid she would rupture something if she laughed too strongly.

She had driven to the school as soon as the feast had finished and stopped by the front office where Bulda—she was sure that was the secretary's name now—had nicely drawn her a map with the directions to the After Care classroom. At that point she had also been informed that Ms. Summerfield was the teacher in charge of it

A smile had reached her lips before she could stop it.

Now, as confident as ever—thanks to the successful meeting and encounter she had earlier that day—she strode down the hallway, passing doorways and half opened lockers on her way to her destination.

That is, of course, until she reached the desired classroom. All ounces of her once-felt bravery promptly departed her body as she looked inside and found Anna, freckles and all, sitting at a small table across from Olaf and a few other kids. She was holding a tiny honey bear bottle in her hands. From where Elsa was standing, Anna seemed to glow under the light.

The redhead, as if aware of another presence in the classroom, turned her head towards the entrance just as Elsa's body finished freezing in place.

Elsa wondered if gulps were audible across a room.

She shifted her gaze slightly to Olaf, who, noticing just then that his new teacher was now looking elsewhere, followed Anna's gaze to the door. He immediately bolted from his chair and sprinted towards the door way, arms already extended, as he ran to greet his mom.

Elsa snapped from her daze as soon as she saw the tiny body run towards her and crouched down to meet him in a hug, relishing in the warmth that seemed to radiate easily from him.

"Mommy!" Olaf said, his small arms wrapping tightly around his mother's neck. "Mommy, I'm so happy you came! Ms. Summerfield was telling us the story of the polar bear. You HAVE to see it!"

Elsa looked up at Anna once again, their eyes meeting for a split second before Anna looked quickly back down at her bottle of honey, suddenly finding it extremely interesting. She walked slowly towards the table, her head nodding mechanically at what Olaf was telling her. She realized then that Olaf hadn't stopped talking.

"…and then she, and then she, and then she made the polar bear green mommy!" Elsa's eyebrows rose higher as he let go of her hand and extended his arms to the sides, used his fingers as claws and bared his teeth, "Then she said 'Rawr! I'm a green polar bear!' or something like that, but I don't remember. You should have saw it mommy, it was awesome!"

Elsa giggled behind her hand as they reached the table and looked up at Anna just as the young teacher's blush expanded past her cheeks and spread to the rest of her face. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before looking up at Elsa.

"Hi Ms. Snowden—I mean, Elsa!" She cleared her throat and sat up straighter. "I was hoping I could have a second of your time to talk to you" She sounded serious all of the sudden, and Elsa couldn't help but to worry at the change of tone.

"Sure, I don't see why not" Elsa agreed, her frown deepening. She turned to Olaf, "Hey, snowflake, would you mind giving me and Ms. Summerfield a second? You can play with some toys in the meantime."

Olaf nodded and scurried off to the opposite side of the room and grabbed as many toys as his small arms allowed him. Anna, in turn, asked the other kids to do the same and rose to her feet. They walked together to the desk that was set in the back of the room, out of hearing distance.

Elsa looked at Anna only now noticing the height difference. The teacher's eyes scanned the room, unable to meet Elsa's eyes. She tucked another strand of hair behind her ear and gripped the bottle of honey between her hands. She sucked in air before lifting her head and making eye contact.

"I, um—I wanted to apologize," she began. Elsa was confused, _apologize for what?_

She continued before Elsa could voice her confusion "I just tend to get excited really easily when I meet new people. Kristo—I mean, Mr. Bjorman, he's the gym teacher—he already told me that I need to calm down when it comes to these things. I hope I didn't make things uncomfortable or anything. It's just—it's just that all of the other parents are older and you just looked so friendly. And you know how computers work, so how could I not, not want to keep you here, you know what I mean?—gah, I'm rambling again." It was true, Elsa noted, her hands were also all over the place.

"Look, all I wanted to say was that I'm sorry for holding back for so long. I hope I didn't make you late for work."

Now Elsa truly did feel confused. Anna was apologizing for being _too_ friendly? She looked away momentarily, attempting to process everything the redhead had just told her.

"Now you won't answer. Great, I made everything worse. This is awkward, not that you're awkward, but just 'cause—we're—I'm awkward, you're gorgeous—wait, what?"

_Wait, what?_ Elsa's eyes shot wide open in shock. _Gorgeous?_ Did that mean Anna like her? Not just liked her, but _liked her _liked her?

The last person—the only person that Elsa had ever heard call her that had been Belle.

_Belle, _Elsa thought as flash flood of memories came crashing down at once. She remembered then the strong feelings she had once felt for her high school girlfriend, the way her heart would somehow fill with joy whenever she held the older girl's hand, and how her heart would seem to stop whenever they kissed.

She remembered too, how she had promised herself to bury those feelings because they were _wrong, Elsa_. Just like everything else about her. The image of her father looking down at her, eyes filled with rage and disappointment seemed to materialize before her eyes.

She took a step back, her breaths becoming shorter and shallower as she realized that she also _liked _Anna.

She couldn't let this happen, she would not let these _sinful urges_ take over her once again.

She had to stop it.

"Elsa," Anna said cautiously, taking a short step towards Elsa, her arm extended. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm sorry, I have to get going." Elsa cut, her eyes wildly scanning the room before she could find her son. "Olaf, get your things honey, we're running late."

"But mommy, I'm—"

"I said _let's go _Olaf"

Elsa walked to where Olaf was standing, waiting for her with his backpack already on. She grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards the door.

She looked back just once to see Anna standing exactly where she left her, honey bear tightly clasped between her hands, and a silent apology on her lips.

* * *

**A/N: **You didn't actually think this was going to be a smooth ride, did you? It's going to get better eventually. I promise :-)

I know I promised some of you (and one tumblr follower) that I would post sooner, but after a full day of work and school I just want to come home and watch netflix, ya know what I mean?

Also, I realize now that I need a Beta. I need one badly.

If anyone is even remotely interested, please PM either through here or tumblr. Here are some of the great things that come with being my Beta:

-You'll get to be a part of the writing process

-You'll go behind the scenes of Arendelle Elementary

-You'll see how crazy I really am

-**I**'**ll totally help you with any stories you are also working on**

**-**You'll get to read this before anyone else does

-Updates will come sooner! (**_Like, seriously. They__ will_**)

-You'll see how crazy I really am

So please, contact me if you're interested.

Oh, and also I don't think I'll be able to update next week. Finals are around the corner. Once those are over I'll totally work on this story, though. don't give up on me just yet, please?

Once summer begins I'll also start working on some other projects I have in mind, so stick around, yeah?

So, some actual notes this time.

-In case you forgot, beignets are those really yummy looking things Tiana makes in the movie The Princess and the Frog. The are also a staple of the New Orleans cuisine, so I basically had to include them.

-I'm almost certain that we don't get to know what Tiana's last name is in the movie, so I went with 'Howard' just because of her dad's voice actor, Terrence Howard.

-The reason Anna is holding a bottle of bear shaped like a honey is because of this really fun thing activity you can do with little kids to teach them colors. It makes the color of the honey change, which makes it look like magic when it's really just food coloring. It's pretty awesome actually.


	4. Chapter 4

**Arendelle Elementary**

Title: Arendelle Elementary

Chapter: 4/?

Rating: T

Warnings: Elsanna (not incest) fem!Slash

Disclaimer: Frozen and all affiliated brands and characters are not my property. The following characters are not based off of anyone I know. The views of the characters are not necessarily my views. Locations and institutions mentioned may not an accurate reflection of the real places and organizations, they are merely used to aid the plot of the story.

* * *

Elsa regretted answering the call the moment her phone touched her ear.

At first she had attempted to drown out the noise coming from her phone by covering her head with a pillow and burying herself deeper within her bed sheets, only then remembering that she no longer lived in her parent's home and that the call she was receiving this early in the morning could be from work. She hadn't slept the night before—in truth, apart from a few hours, she hadn't slept the entire previous week. The exhaustion she felt had already begun to make its way onto her face in the form of dark circles under her eyes—a fact Olaf had made sure to point out one day during breakfast.

Pushing the pillow aside, she sat up in bed and thought about ignoring the call for another second before the unholy ring of her phone broke through the silence of the room once again. She reached for the phone in haste, making a mental note to change her ringtone to something more soothing, and pressed the 'answer' key only after skimming the name on the screen. It wasn't until she felt the coolness of the device against the side of her face that her brain registered that the person on the other side of the line was her father.

"Elsa?" her father asked. She could hear the anger in his voice. She had ceased breathing completely, and her heart was beating fast and loud. For a moment she hoped that the deafening pounding of her heart had caused her to imagine her father speaking.

Maybe she was still dreaming.

She opened her mouth to reply but she failed to find her voice, a broken gasp making its way out instead.

"Elsa!" It wasn't a question anymore. She had heard him use that tone before; it was the tone he reserved for private moments long after the cameras had stopped rolling and the voters had returned to their homes. He knew she was listening.

She was fully awake now, her eyes wide with alertness. She looked around the room trying to find something on which to fix her gaze, something that would somehow alleviate the tightness in her chest. When she couldn't, she looked down at her lap and noticed her hand was shaking. She used it to push back her bangs.

She wanted nothing more than to hang up, to simply press the key on her phone that would end the call and pretend nothing had happened. She knew she wasn't ready to talk to him yet.

And yet, if she was honest with herself, she knew that talking to her father would be nothing more than cherry on top of the most stressful week of her life.

She had returned home on the day of the terrible encounter with Olaf's teacher with her mind set on moving back to Maine. As it had happened with Belle, she knew that the best way to get rid of her feelings was to distance herself from the person—and what better way to do so, she had thought at the time, than to move a few states away.

She had gotten as far as emptying half of her closet before she had looked back at Olaf, with the intention of telling him to go do the same with his toys, and realized that he was crying. She had seen him cry before, whenever he fell and scraped a knee, when a thunderstorm or nightmare would wake him up from his sleep, or a few times because he felt quite strongly against taking a shower. That day there had been no sobbing or screaming. He had simply stood in place, backpack still on, his snowman tightly clenched in his arms, and tears running down his cheeks.

They had sat on her bedroom floor after that, Olaf on her lap, as she rocked him back and forth attempting to soothe him. His tears had slowly stopped falling and a smile had returned to his face as she assured him that yes, they would be staying forever and yes, he could sleep in her bed tonight, but no, they would not be eating chocolate for dinner that night.

Of course, though that had worked out in the end, she still had to find a way to fix her "Anna" problem.

So, she had done the next best thing she could think of. Avoid the redhead at all costs. She had realized over the next couple of days that such feat was easier said than done, especially when it included a certain Ms. Summerfield.

The next morning, at the school, Elsa had managed to slip past the redhead without much trouble. The car ride on the way there had been comprised of Elsa giving Olaf various instructions on how she would drop him off, give him a quick kiss goodbye and run back to her car. Olaf had agreed heartily, his head nodding at dangerous speeds as she told him of how the crucial mission required his help.

She hadn't doubted Olaf's ability to follow through with the plan until they actually set foot on the school playground and she remembered her boy's inability to retain information when excited. Olaf had managed to free himself from Elsa's grip at the first sight of his teacher—thanks to her sweaty palms, no doubt—and had sprinted towards Anna so fast his tiny arms had trailed behind him, struggling to catch up. Elsa had simply stood in place as her son ran to the school entrance, all while shouting "Ms. Summerfield!" at the top of his lungs.

Unable to move, she saw Anna's head turn towards Olaf's direction as he called her name, and then move up, her gaze finding Elsa. It was as if she had been frozen to the very spot. Their eyes locked and she stood there long enough to see Anna's expression change from surprise to one of relief. As soon as the teacher began to take a step in her direction, however, Elsa's primal fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, urging her to turn on her heel and begin making a beeline towards her car.

She had done everything to keep herself from running, only turning her head once to make sure that Olaf had actually made it to the door and a second time when she thought she had dropped her keys in her hurry to get ready in time to make her escape.

She had mentally high-fived herself on the way to work for her ability to keep things in check.

The afternoon pick-up had similarly been less than ideal as she realized that in her effort to prepare Olaf for the morning trip, she had failed to make any plans for the afternoon.

At first she had told herself that she would simply walk into the classroom, demand her child, and walk out. As soon as she had been finished with work, she had driven to the school intent on making the trip to the classroom and back to her car as quick as possible.

It couldn't be impossible, she figured, seeing that this was how _normal_ parents handled their children's school affairs.

She had made it as far as rounding the corner outside of the After Care classroom before her plan crumbled to the ground.

Anna had been standing outside of the classroom, leaning on the doorway talking to a blond man. Elsa hid behind the corner and looked on as the man rubbed the back of his neck and softly placed his hand on Anna's shoulder—almost reassuringly.

From where she was standing, Elsa had only been able to see the man's back, but based on the fact that he was wearing a t-shirt and some athletic shorts, she had assumed the man was the gym teacher Anna had told her about. Anna, on the other hand, had been wearing a green summer dress that fit her beautifully.

For a quick second, Elsa had allowed herself to admire the other woman. Then she had thought better of it, and instead had chosen to change strategies.

She decided she would wait for Anna to go back in the classroom, quietly make her way to the doorway, get Olaf's attention as quietly as possible, sneak him out, and just before she made a bolt towards the exit, she would run into the classroom and quickly sign her and Olaf's name on the "sign out sheet."

Elsa had waited a few minutes after Anna made her way back into the classroom before she began making treacherous journey. Walking much slower than usual, she had made sure to lift up her feet to minimize the noise her heels made. She had also taken extra care to keep an eye out for tiny obstacles in the shape of art supplies. She became slower still as she inched to the doorway and looked around the hallway to ensure that no one would startle her as she executed her plan.

She had held in her breath, not wanting to make any sort of noise that would betray her location, and poked her head around the doorway.

The smile that had made its way onto Elsa's face as a result of her accomplishment quickly disappeared as she saw that Anna was sitting two feet away from the door while Olaf played with some kids on the opposite side of the classroom.

He was playing next to a window. Elsa frowned, mentally counting the numerous times she had told that boy not to do that.

She had withdrawn her head and rested her back on the snowflakes poster she had trouble finding on the first day of school, ready to give up when her next idea struck her. Her eyes had widened in realization as her feet carried her to the back door of the school, as if possessed by a mind of their own.

She had rounded the building and walked along the outside, a glimmer of hope suddenly telling her that maybe she would be able to get away with her plan. And yet, as she had approached the window, she had discovered that the only thing visible from the outside was her reflection.

At that point, her only consolation had been the knowledge that if she couldn't spy on her son from the outside, no one else could.

She had looked around for yet another second, hoping that another idea would soon follow, when window in front of her suddenly opened. Elsa had cringed, expecting the bubbly redhead to poke her head out.

She had been both shocked and relieved to find that the head protruding from the window was not adorned by red, beautiful twin braids and freckles but instead by blond side burns and a mustache.

"Ms. Snowden, you need help getting to the classroom again, jah?" the burly social worker had asked.

Elsa had sighed audibly and agreed.

To her benefit, Mr. Oaken had not only taken Elsa to the classroom after instructing her to re-enter the building, but he had walked inside of the room with her—his presence had successfully prevented Ms. Summerfield from approaching Elsa.

His size had also helped; the fact that he was standing in between Elsa and the young teacher meant no eye contact between the two, though Elsa could have sworn at one point Anna had jumped in order to look at her over the man.

She had walked out of the school that day victorious, head up and kid in hand.

That had been the best day of the week. Her luck had quickly deteriorated to the point of non-existence as the days progressed.

The first couple of days, Anna had seemed hopeful that Elsa would approach her. She had waited patiently by the front door of the school for Elsa to arrive, standing on the tips of her toes and excitedly waving at the older woman as soon as she stepped out of her car. Elsa, on her part, had pretended not to see her.

Looking past Anna hadn't been too difficult—that was, at least, until Thursday of the next week came around. Elsa had driven to the school that day and found that Anna standing by the very sport where Elsa parked her car.

For a second, Elsa had panicked, not having planned ahead for the teacher's change of location. She had found herself unable to slow down her car and instead had continued driving, her eyes never leaving Anna's now confused look.

Unlike the teacher's morning routine, her bad luck hadn't changed: she had not been able to find a parking sport anywhere else. Not only had she been forced to drive around the school and back to where Anna was standing, but she also had stood by as Olaf got out the car, ran to his teacher and told her how his "mommy got scared when she saw you so she kept driving."

She had tried so hard to keep her mortification from showing, though she had been almost sure the color of her cheeks had betrayed her. Just like her son.

Anna had simply smiled her way. Elsa had noted how her smile hadn't quite reached her eyes like it had on that first day of school—regret had been written all over her young features.

An overwhelming feeling of guilt had flooded Elsa at that moment. Unable to face it, she had quickly cut off the younger woman as soon as she had opened her mouth to speak with a reserved "good day, Ms. Summerfield." She had turned on her heel and walked back to her car.

Elsa had spent the remainder of the day trying to convince herself that her cold treatment was for the best. She hadn't been able to concentrate on anything else that day, and very little work was completed.

She had dreaded the moment in the afternoon when she would have to see Anna again.

Up until that day, the afternoons had been very similar to her mornings. Mr. Oaken was nowhere to be found, and so she had been forced to go inside of the classroom on her own in order to sign the pick-up sheet and get Olaf. The first few days Anna had simply attempted to start conversations with Elsa. She had stuck to small chat, choosing to point out the weather, the drawing Olaf was taking home, or the weird stain on the ceiling that looked like a dog. Elsa had simply nodded her head, signed the sheet and left, not even looking in Anna's direction for the fear that she would break her silence if she did.

That day Anna had made no attempt to approach her. Elsa had walked into the classroom and found Anna sitting in the back of the classroom, instead of her usual spot by the front at the children's table. She had no longer smiled in her direction, and had just given her a quick glance and a head nod before resuming her book, not bothering to say much else.

On the drive home Elsa had also noted how Olaf was less talkative than usual. He still had told stories about his day and of his teacher, but Elsa knew her son and she knew that something had been wrong. She was sure that she had looked at his reflection in the rearview mirror more than she had looked at the road as she tried to find the problem.

At dinnertime, during a very vivid conversation about their plans of visiting the beach during the weekend, Olaf had asked Elsa why she didn't like his teacher. Elsa had been taken aback by the sudden question and assured him that it wasn't the case. Apparently content with her answer, he had continued talking about building snowmen out of sand.

They had moved to her study later on, as usual, where Olaf would draw and color and Elsa would finish the last details for work. When Olaf had been about to go to bed, Elsa had checked his backpack and discovered an envelope addressed to her.

"Snowflake, what's this?" she had asked, thinking it was some type of permission form.

She had looked at him in time to see his worried expression before he said "Oh, mommy. I forgot! Ms. Summerfield said it was important you read it. She said it's not for school."

Elsa had simply shoved the letter at the very bottom of her drawer where it remained unopened.

She hadn't stopped thinking about it the entire night, as her mind relieved the entire week in a matter of seconds.

"Papa?" she asked, suddenly regaining the ability to speak.

"Elsa," he said again, his tone hadn't changed. "Your mother told me what you did. Why would you ever think it was a good idea to move to another state? Do you know how hard we've worked—how hard I've worked to keep your cover, just so you can ruin it overnight?"

He was shouting now. There was a lump at the back of Elsa's throat. She clenched the sheets of her bed with her fist attempting to keep her emotions in check. She didn't want him to hear her cry.

"Papa," she tried sounding calm, but even she could hear her voice waver. "I'm an adult now, I have a son. I think I know what's best—"

"If you knew what was best for you, Elsa, we wouldn't be in this mess" he said, cutting her off.

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. With her free hand she swiped off the tear was making its way down her cheek.

At that point she tried to tell herself that she could hang up her phone and continue with her life. She tried to move her phone away from her ear and end the conversation.

But she didn't.

She reminded herself that it was her father, he was the man to whom she owed her entire life. It was because of him that she had made it this far.

"Look, Elsa" she heard her father sigh on the other side of the line. "I'm calling you because there may be a way out of this for all us. Hans called and—"

"Hans?" She asked, confused. She remembered him clearly—red hair, sideburns, green eyes, boyish smile. Thankfully the only trait she had seen in Olaf that reminded her of Hans were his eyes. They were big and beautiful and had none of the malice and greed she had seen in Hans.

She hadn't talked to him since the night him and his dad came into her parent's home to discuss her pregnancy as if it was a business transaction. The entire time he had sat next to his dad, never looking at Elsa.

She hadn't called him either, even when her mother insisted she did after he won his first election for the National House of Representatives the year before. The truth was that she wasn't sure how to approach the subject of their son.

Olaf was almost six. Hans hadn't talked to him once.

"He's part of a new joint committee that focuses on children, families and persons with disabilities. It's a great opportunity for him—for the both of you. It'll give him a bit of an edge when he presents his family at the various events. It may even help him make his way into the Senate, and you and your son will be able to go back into the public eye."

Elsa was even more confused now, was her father really asking her to pretend to be in a relationship with Hans for his political profit and her family's image?

"Papa, I won't do that"

"Look, Elsa. I'm telling you to do this for all of us, God knows the hardship you've put me and your mother through. I gave him your number, he'll call you"

He hung up.

Elsa put her phone on the night stand next to her bed, and rested her head back down on the pillow.

Maybe she would just call in sick today.

* * *

A/N: Ok, so that took forever.

I just want to say that I'm really sorry for the extreme delay in uploading this new chapter. I was under the impression that I would have more time to update during summer. I guess that isn't the case.

I know I always say this, but next chapter really should be coming to you soon. Originally this one was meant to be longer, but I decided to split it in half. It was getting too long and the first half didn't have much to do with the second one.

Also, thank you so, so, so, very much to all of you who messaged me about being my beta. I honestly can't express how grateful I am to all of you.

Thank you to those of you who reviewed, favorited, and followed-it always surprises me when, a month after my last update, I get a notification that someone has liked my story. I am just in awe of how amazing everyone is (I will start replying to reviews starting now, by the way).

And huge, huge shout out to my two betas RaymanK16 and Okaami-chin. They are just best and I think I would have abandoned this story if it wasn't for them. Please go check out their stories because they are also amazing writers.


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